A Night At the Museum and Dinner at Denny's

Illness got in the way of our Christmas Day plans this year, so instead of spending the day with my parents and my sister's family, we did things a little different. After opening the gifts at home we went to the movies.

My sister was sick so we couldn't have the usually family gathering at my parent's house, but we invited the folks to join us at the theater to see Night at the Museum, the new movie starring Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke and a feisty Mickey Rooney. Two thumbs up. It was entertaining and nothing about it was family unfriendly. I enjoyed the premise of the whole thing, and if you can suspend disbelief for a couple of hours you'll have a good time. Robin Williams plays a very good Teddy Roosevelt and some of the scenes with the T-Rex are pretty funny. Go see it.

Since we didn't have the big family dinner as usual, we still needed to eat, and if you've ever tried to go out on Christmas Day, there isn't much open. In our area your choice was pretty much Denney's. I have to give a shout out to the Denny's in Foothill Ranch (CA) where we ate last night. It was packed full of other people like us who were looking for something on Christmas night, and the staff did a terrific job. They obviously knew they were going to get blitzed (being the only thing open) and they were well prepared for it.

Denny's can be a real crapshoot. There's another one near our house that is perpetually understaffed and you can wait forever there for your food. That wasn't the case in Foothill Ranch. The staff was hopping, and despite the crowds, our food service was quick and accurate, and my hat's off to them for working so hard when everybody else was off.

We'll have our regular family Christmas on New Year's Day this year (if everyone is healthy again).